Baseball Completes Sweep of Alabama with 11-5 Win

COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Alabama with an 11-5 win Saturday afternoon (April 30), tying a season high with 14 hits and scoring runs in six of the eight innings. Andrew Eyster set a career high with six RBI in the win.
 
Alabama took a 2-0 lead in the first, but the Gamecocks responded with three in the bottom of the first. Brandt Belk walked and went to third on a Kevin Madden double. Eyster brought in both runners with a single to left. Eyster then trotted home on Michael Braswell’s double to right.
 
Eyster homered in the third, giving Carolina a 5-2 lead. The Gamecocks added three more runs in the fourth, highlighted by a Talmadge LeCroy two-run single. Alabama cut the lead to 8-5 on a Dominic Tamez home run in the sixth, but Carolina added insurance with single runs in the seventh and eighth as Eyster’s double in the seventh drove in the sixth run of the day.
 
Eyster, Madden and Braylen Wimmer had three hits apiece to lead the offense. Belk added two hits for the Gamecocks, while LeCroy drove in a pair.
 
Will Sanders earned his sixth win of the season for the Gamecocks, striking out eight in seven innings of work with seven hits and five runs. Matthew Becker and Cade Austin pitched one inning of relief apiece, striking out three between the two of them.
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• Carolina had the leadoff batter reach in all eight innings in today’s game.
• Eyster’s six RBI was the most by a Gamecock since Wes Clarke had seven RBI in a win over Northwestern on Feb. 22, 2020.
• Carolina had 14 hits in wins over Texas and North Carolina this season.
• Carolina reached on five walks and five hit by pitches.

UP NEXT
Carolina hosts North Carolina A&T Wednesday night (May 4) at 7 p.m. at Founders Park. The game will be televised on SEC Network.